Shares of US shale oil producers tumbled on Friday on indications OPEC would keep output at near-record levels, even as a global oil glut has pushed down prices, in a bid to squeeze rival US producers out of the market.

OPEC ministers, meeting in Vienna to decide on policy, also raised their oil output ceiling largely to acknowledge the reality that its members pump in aggregate more than the previous 30 million barrels per day (bpd) cap.

While overproduction hadn't been a big secret, the ceiling raise suggested to the global oil market that even more OPEC oil can be expected. That sent Brent and US oil prices sharply lower, dragging down U.S. energy stocks with them.

"Hope for a near term catalyst (for US shale oil stocks) evaporates," Wells Fargo analyst Roger Read said in a note to clients after news of the OPEC decision broke.

Tim Rezvan, an oil analyst with Sterne Agee CRT, said OPEC's decision heralds a "bearish near-term event" for the U.S. oil industry.

Shares of Whiting Petroleum Corp, Continental Resources Inc and Oasis Petroleum Inc, top North Dakota oil producers, each fell more than 4 percent.